Album Review

The first striking aspect of Euphone's Calendar of Unlucky Days is the production, which is important for this music. The production lets you get involved with every aspect of the instrumentation. Basically, there is a lot happening on this record. The "post" prefix could be applied, but there is much more than that tag connotes. Various percussion instruments take you on groove journeys. The tunes layer parts of different rhythms and styles building on one another to obtain the goal of quality listening. This is ear candy, headphone music mixing organic and electric sounds. Many styles creep into the mix including Caribbean, soca, dub, Latin, space, rock, and pop. The bass is thick and melodic. Keyboards play against the rhythms adding their own interesting element. The guitars end up providing beautiful melodies to the complex polyrhythms. Horns and winds bleed in and out of tunes. Effects and samples trickle. The focus here is on the rhythm, syncopation, and layers. A wonderful record which makes you want to be in the studio with Euphone to see what instruments are used and how they pieced together this record.

Biography

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '90s, '00s

In 1994, Ryan Rapsys, of Heroic Doses, started a solo project, called Euphone, where he'd experiment with a improvisational mix of progressive jazz and rock. He played live shows with just a drum kit, a sequencer and a keyboard and released his first album, Euphone, in 1997. Heroic Doses band mate Nick Macri later joined Rapys making Euphone a duo. The two released the album The Calendar of Unlucky Days in 1999. Euphone's sound follows in the footsteps...